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Articles for Category Tag - Europe

New EU Delay Threatens State Aid Fuelled Broadband Rollout in Cumbria UK

4th April, 2013 (1 Comment)

The huge state aid supported Connecting Cumbria project, which will see BT deploy its FTTC/P based superfast broadband ISP technologies to cover over 93% of the county by the end of 2015, is facing the risk of fresh delays due to the need for an additional layer of EU competition approval before funding can be released.

EU Gives Ofcom Green Light for Cheaper BT Leased Line Prices in the UK

28th March, 2013 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, confirms that the European Commission (EC) “did not raise any concerns” about its plans to slash the price that ISPs, mobile operators and businesses must pay to BT for 1Gbps+ wholesale Leased Line (Ethernet) services in all parts of the UK except Hull and London.

EU Sets Out New Proposals to Cut the Cost of Deploying Fibre Broadband

26th March, 2013 (9 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has today proposed a new Draft Regulation that could cut the cost of broadband related civil engineering tasks (e.g. digging up roads to lay new fibre optic cable) by 30% and thus save telecoms operators between £34 – £51 billion (€40 to €60 billion).

ITU Secretary General Wants World to Get 20Mbps Broadband by 2020

18th March, 2013 (0 Comments)

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Dr Hamadoun Touré, has told the 7th Meeting of the Broadband Commission in Mexico City that he’d like to “dream big” and set a new goal to ensure that everybody in the world can access broadband internet speeds of 20Mbps for $20 a month (£13.25) by 2020.

EU Telecoms Regulators Support Plan to Boost Broadband Investment

12th March, 2013 (2 Comments)

The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), which represents Europe’s national telecoms regulators (e.g. Ofcom in the UK), has given its preliminary support to new EU rules that are intended to boost investment and competition in the roll-out of superfast broadband ISP services.

The Top 27 Fastest UK and EU Countries by Broadband ISP Speeds

6th March, 2013 (0 Comments)

The publication of Ofcom’s European Broadband Scorecard yesterday was notable for its inability to compare UK fixed line broadband and mobile internet speeds with other EU states. But other real-world performance data, courtesy of Ookla.com, does still exist and can be used for a rough comparison.

Ofcom Scorecard Reveals UK vs EU Broadband Rollout Progress

5th March, 2013 (4 Comments)

The communications regulator, Ofcom, has today published its first European Broadband Scorecard that shows how the United Kingdom compares with the EU in terms of the progress towards its ambition that the UK should have “the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015“. Apparently we do.. ok.

Death of EU Broadband Funding to Boost 4G and WiFi Mobile Alternatives

26th February, 2013 (0 Comments)

Telecoms analyst firm Point Topic has suggested that internet access solutions which attract a low marginal cost, such as Mobile Broadband, Satellite and WiFi, are now likely to play a bigger then expected part in the UK and Europe’s strategy for expanding broadband coverage into rural areas.

EU Release Updated Broadband Access Coverage Report to July 2012

18th February, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has today published new data on the number of broadband lines and ISP speed in Member States, including the UK, gathered to July 2012. Overall 95.7% of EU homes are already passed by at least one fixed broadband ISP but 9.1 million homes still do not have coverage (over 90% of which are in rural areas).

UPDATE3 Funding for EU Digital Agenda Broadband Projects Gets Wiped Out

9th February, 2013 (9 Comments)

Last night’s decision to cut the European Union’s seven-year 2014 to 2020 budget by 3% to around £768bn has taken a significant casualty. The European Commission’s (EC) plan to boost funding for future superfast broadband projects through its €9.2bn (£7.78bn) Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) has effectively been wiped out.

EU Publish Details of State Aid Decision for UK Superfast Broadband Projects

9th January, 2013 (6 Comments)

The European Commission (EC), which officially cleared the release of state aid funding for UK superfast broadband deployment projects last November (original news), has now released the final documentation that describes the reasoning for their decision in more detail.

EU Adopts New State Aid Guidelines to Boost Ultrafast Broadband Rollouts

19th December, 2012 (11 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has today adopted revised guidelines on the use of public funding to help deploy “super-fast” broadband (30Mbps+) ISP services to everybody in the EU by 2020. The updated “rules” support a technologically neutral approach and include a greater focus on funding for “ultra-fast” (100Mbps+) services in urban areas.

EU Broadband Coverage Reaches 72% of Households vs 80% in the UK

19th December, 2012 (1 Comment)

The European Union (EU27) has released its latest annual ‘Internet use in households and by individuals in 2012‘ report, which found that 76% of EU households now have internet access (up from 66% in 2009) and 72% of EU homes connect via broadband (up from just 57% in 2009).

Europe Blasts UK Government for False Broadband Funding Delay Jibes

28th November, 2012 (6 Comments)

Europe’s competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, has publicly criticised the UK government’s Culture Secretary, Maria Miller MP, after she blamed the European Commission for holding up the release of State Aid funding and thus delaying the country’s national roll-out of superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services.

Europe Releases Study of Retail Broadband Internet Access Costs in 2012

23rd November, 2012 (2 Comments)

The EU has released data on retail prices for fixed broadband ISP services, which reveals a pattern of price reduction over the last three years for bundled offers. It also finds that price competition is mainly taking place in the market for download speeds of above 4Mbps (Megabits per second).

Study Claims EU Needs 92 Years to Switch from Copper to Fibre Broadband

23rd November, 2012 (13 Comments)

The latest research from consultancy firm Ventura Team and finance group Portland Advisors has estimated that at the current “snail’s pace” it could take Europe 92 years and £211bn to completely switch from existing copper-based telephone and broadband ISP infrastructure to a fully fibre optic (FTTH) service.

Europe Clears UK State Aid Funding for Superfast Broadband Deployment

21st November, 2012 (10 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has officially granted final approval for the release of state aid funding through the UK government, which allows local authorities to proceed with their national deployment of superfast broadband services (25Mbps+) to reach 90% of people by around spring 2015. But what are the minor changes?